Ozo baseball is a homerun for digital fluency and computer science students

By Wendy Stokna and Rachel Heroth

As part of the 7th grade team baseball event, students in Mrs. Heroth’s Computer Science and Mrs. Stokna’s Digital Fluency classes teamed up to program our Ozobots to perform in a baseball-themed manner. Students have spent the school year learning various computer science and applied digital skills such as programming with JavaScript and using digital applications for productivity and creation. This project pulled together all of those skills along with some baseball-themed fun!

Students brainstormed, developed a plan, and developed algorithms to enable the Ozobots to “play ball!” Students participated in stations in which they programmed the robots to round the bases and perform a special movement at each base, hit a ball to compete in a home-run derby, and choreographed a “7th inning stretch” dance with code. Students had fun learning about how the technology communicates through optical sensors, color codes, all while problem solving and debugging their code to complete the final product.

As a real-life connection, small baseball-themed cutouts were created to “dress up” the Ozobot using the Cricut machine. A Cricut machine uses optical technology similar to that of the Ozobot to read registration lines and work in coordination with its software to cut out the shapes used in this activity.

The celebration concluded with a special ballgame favorite . . . popcorn! There was truly a lot of excitement and learning around this special event.

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